ImgBurn can write most types of CD / DVD images - including BIN, CUE, DI, DVD, GI, IMG, ISO, MDS, NRG and PDI. It supports all the latest writers (including booktype / bitsetting on many of the major ones - i.e. BenQ, LiteOn, NEC, Plextor, Sony). You can even use ImgBurn to erase / format your rewritable media!

ImgBurn will try its very best to burn your DVD-Video double layer images using the layer break you've specified in the IFO files, but it can also calculate the best place for you, to save you the trouble.

Advanced functionality can be found in context menus that appear when you right click on various bits of the user interface. These features are also covered and explained in this guide.

ImgBurn is written by Lightning UK! and is an enhanced version of an earlier released burn engine.

Normally this log window should be enabled with automatic when you start ImgBurn. If you can't see it or if you want to hide it - presss the letter L on your keyboard.

The ImgBurn log file is an extremely useful part of the program. It not only provides you with the details of every individual session. It helps you troubleshoot if any errors happen.

If you don't see it - press the 'L' button on your keyboard to turn it on or off. Even if you select it to be off - it runs in the background and you can at any time turn it on again and watch what's saved in it.

You can have ImgBurn automatically to save the log for you after exiting the program. Which can be very helpful if you need to post a log file from failed burn. That way you do not have to recreate it again. (If your computer freezes and you have to manually reset/reboot it (or you lose your electricity etc), ImgBurn will not save the log. It only saves the log if you 'X' out of the screen, or click "File", then "Exit".

File

New

This will create an empty log file window.

Open...

This gives you the option to open up an already saved log file.

Save As...

This gives you the option to save the log file.

Print

This will send the contents of the log file to your printer.

Close

This will close the log window.

Edit

Cut

Cut the selected part of the log file.

Copy

Copy the selected part of the log file.

Delete

Delete the selected part of the log file.

Select All

Selects all rows of the log file.

Tools

Count

This will show you a window with some statistics about your log file.

Queue

The queue system will allow you to put several images in a burning queue and then burn all images in a row after eachother.

Add the images that you want to queue.

After that the first image in the queue is burnt - ImgBurn will ask you to insert a new disc.

After that the new disc is inserted - ImgBurn will automatically start the burning of the new image in ten seconds.

Note: If you right-click in the queue window you will see a pop up menu:

Refresh

Does a new initiation of the disc and reads it once again. Just as you had inserted the disc once again.

Select the imagefile you want to burn by using the folder icon to be loaded into the program.

You can also press the queue button to load the queue manager. In this manager you can add several images and then let ImgBurn burn them in a row after eachother.

Label:

Shows the images label name.

Sectors:

Shows your the sector size for the selected image.

Size:

Shows you the psyical size for the selected image.

Time:

Shows you the time for the selected image.

Destination

Select the CD/DVD-burner you want to use for your burning.

Test Mode

This will fake a burning. Every step involved in a real burning will be carried out - except turning on the laser.

If this process is done without any errors - you will see this window:

If you try to use a RW disc for this mode - it will not work and you will see this message window:

Verify

If you want to verify that your image has been written properly to your disc you can select this option. It will re-read your burned disc and compare it to the original file.

L:

Loads the tray in the selected device.

E:

Ejects the tray in the selected device.

Settings

Write Speed:

You can here select the speed rate at which you want the burning to be performed at.

If you want to burn as fast as either the burner or the media is capable of - select 'MAX'. If you want to burn at a desired speed - select that corresponding number at which you want to burn at in the drop-down box.

DVDs can only be burned at 16X as fastest. If you see a higher speed number in the drop-down box - it's a setting for CD burning. After that the program is installed for the first time - it will show 56X.

Book Type:

If your drive supports book type/bit setting, remember to tell it to burn DVD +R/+RW discs as DVD-ROM. This will make them more compatible with players. The book type/bit setting utility is accessed by clicking on the little 'book' icon in the lower right part of the window.

You will then see this menu:

Now select your brand of burner. In my example I select 'NEC'.

You can now select the option you want to carry out.

The Burning Process

Insert a blank DVD disc in your CD/DVD burners drive.

After that the disc has been loaded - the right part of the program window will now show you information about your inserted disc.

Press the icon to select the image file you want to burn. If you are burning a DL ISO image you should select the .mds file if there is one as that one contains the information about where the layerbreak will be placed. If you should forgot that - the program will remind you.

When you have set your settings you are ready to burn the image. Press the start button and your burning begins.

If you have selected the option 'Verify' - the disc tray will eject before that the verifying process takes place and the program waits for the disc to be reloaded again. You can select in the options settings if you want the disc to be ejected or not before the verifying process.

It verifies that the data that was suppose burned, was burned. Most likely, the DVD will burn fine, and if it doesn't, it'll tell you during the burn. You can leave this 'enabled' ('disabled' by default) if you want to feel extra safe.

This shows you how the verifying process is running:

When it's done and if the burning and verifying process was finished without errors - a dialogue box will come up saying burning is complete.

After that message, you can hit "OK" and go ahead and remove the disc.

Now we want to open up our ISO file and change the Volume Label name. Select the imagefile you want to use by using the folder icon to be loaded into the program.

Now you can change it to what you want. Then just press the button 'OK' and the name is changed.

Display IFO Layer Break Information...

This will display the layer break information from a DL image.

Drive

Refresh

Does a new initiation of the DVD and reads it once again. Just as you had inserted the DVD once again.

ReZero

The REZERO UNIT command positions the laser head of the drive to the zero track (LBA 0) and basically reinitialises the drive.

This command exists for command compatibility and it works on several drives.

Load

Closes the device tray.

Eject

Ejects the device tray.

Lock Tray

Locks the device tray.

UnLock Tray

Unlocks the device tray.

Set Read Speed

This setting is not used by the program.

Erase Disc

If you want to erase your RW disc - you can do it here.

Quick

Does a quick erase of the disc.

Full

Wipes out the whole disc. This takes longer time than the 'Quick' version above.

Synchronise Cache

The command flushes the cached buffers to media which makes it possible to resume the data flow.

Synchronise Cache is used after a failed burn (not needed if you burnt with ImgBurn because it performs that operation regardless). It basically tells the drive the Write operation has finished and that it's to finish writing everything in it's cache to the disc and basically clean up after itself.

Close

If your burned disc have not been properly closed - you can do it here.

Track

Closes the track.

Session

Closes the session.

Disc

Closes the whole disc.

Change Advanced Settings...

Here you can change some settings if you have a BenQ, LiteOn or Plexter writer.

Change Book Type...

If your drive supports book type/bit setting, remember to tell it to burn DVD +R/+RW discs as DVD-ROM. This will make them more compatible with players.

You will see this menu after you have selected this option:

Now select your brand of burner. In my example I select 'NEC'.

You can now select the option you want to carry out.

Regional Code

Information

This will show you the current Region Code settings for your device.

If you should see this window - it will in most cases mean that your burner is flashed with regionfree firmware.

Change

You can here change the current Region Code for your device.

Just remember that you can only change this setting five times. The last Region Code you then set it to - will be to that one forever.

If you should see this window - you can't change the region code because you have a regionfree firmware installed.

Capabilities

This shows your selected devices capabilities.

Check For Firmware Updates...

You need to be connected to internet in order for it to work. The program searches 'The Firmware page' and shows you available firmware updates for your selected device. It also shows you your current installed firmware version.

Create DVD MDS file...

If your hard disk is not NTFS formatted you can't deal with ISO files over 4 GB in size. Your ISO file will have to be split to several ISOs. To create an index over those files - you can create a MDS file.

Normally this should have been done automatically by the program while it saved your ISO creation.

Search for SCSI/ATAPI Devices

Searches your computer for installed devices - such as CD/DVD burners and DVD-ROMs.

Settings...

This will give you a menu of the different settings you can apply to the program.

There are seven different tabs in this menu:

The Tabs

These additional registry settings are explained in the next section of the guide.

General

Read

Build

Write

Verify

Graph Data

I/O

Device

Sounds

Events

Registry

Defaults

The default setting is showed in blue in this guide.

If you have changed any settings and want to use the default ones. Simply press the 'Default' button. The program will ask you if you really want to reset the settings:

When enabling this option, ImgBurn will minimize itself as an icon to the system tray. (System tray is where your PC clock is located.)

If you want to bring the ImgBurn window backup, you would double click the "CD" looking icon. Alternatively, you could right click on the "CD" looking icon and left click on "Restore ImgBurn".

If you have a few windows open while ripping. This will minimize ImgBurn to the tray and remove the ImgBurn box from your taskbar.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Sync. Build / Write / Discovery Options

The default setting is 'enabled'.

'Queue' Window - Stay On Top

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Prevent Screen Saver From Starting

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Show 'Shutdown' Window

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Shutdown Action:

Log Off

Restart

Turn Off

Stand By

Hibernate

The default setting is 'Turn Off'.

Language

The default setting is 'English'.

Display Warnings

Don't Update IFO/BUP Files

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Images Still Queued

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Interfering Programs

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Layer Break On DVD-R DL

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Maximum File Size

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Overburning

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Seamless Layer Break

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Select MDS File Not ISO

In most cases you should select the .ISO file when you want to burn the image. In some cases there is the need to select the .MDS file instead:

Your hard disk is not NTFS formatted

As Windows 98 and some older Windows version is based on the FAT 32 filesystem (and a lot of people still use this even under Win XP) which cannot handle files larger than 4 GB and shrinked movies usually are at about 4.7 GB, a program such as DVD Shrink splits the backup files on such systems into a multipart or segmented ISO which consists of several 1 GB files with an enumerated extension like .i01, .i02 and an .mds file of a few bytes which holds info on the parts.

You are going to burn to a DL disc

MDS is just a file that is generated along with the ISO file when making a 1/1 Copy or creating a ISO file on your hard drive. It just basically tells your burner where to put the layer break for dual layer burning.

BURN-Proof (or BurnProof) is an unfortunate abbreviation of "Buffer-Under-RuN Proof". The technology allows you to avoid buffer underruns by suspending and restarting the write process when the recorder's buffer is about to empty. (See section (4-1) if you're not familiar with buffer underruns.)

All of these are for situations where your computer is unable to send data to the drive quickly enough to keep the buffer full. They will not help you if your computer loses power, your software crashes, your media is of poor quality, or you smack the drive hard enough to disrupt the recording process.
Nearly all CD/DVD recorders announced in or after 2001 featured some variation of buffer underrun protection.

Ideally, the results of interrupted and uninterrupted writes would be identical. In practice, there may be a small glitch at the point where writing was suspended. The general concensus is that these technologies are effective and do not result in noticeable glitches.

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Lock Volume - Exclusive Access

This will stop other programs for accessing your burner while you do the burn.

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Cycle Tray Before Verify

CD/DVD recorders (and modern CD/DVD-ROM drives) have a chunk of RAM that holds blocks read from the disc. Some drives provide a way to clear this out, some don't.

All drives need to have their block cache cleared out after writing completes and before disc verification begins. If this weren't done, the files being verified could be read out of the block cache instead of from the disc itself, defeating the purpose of the verification pass. Also, some CD/DVD recorders need to have their recording buffers explicitly cleared between the "test" and "write" passes.

The most reliable, 100%-guaranteed-to-work approach is to eject the disc and re-insert it. Watching your CD/DVD tray open and close can be startling at first, but in general it's harmless.

Back in the early days of CD recording, the situation was a bit more awkward. Caddy drives were the norm, so an ejected disc had to be manually re-inserted. Some poorly-written CD recording software would automatically start the "write" pass a few seconds after the "test" pass, without waiting for the disc to be re-inserted, so you either had to be paying close attention or set the "wait until told to continue" option.

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Verify Against Image File

This option will run the verify process against the actual image you burned. If not enabled - it will only try to read the burned disc.

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Check 'Delete Image'

This will pre-check this option in the 'ISO Write Mode' window. After a successful burn the image source will be automatically deleted.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Check 'Close Program'

After a successful burning - the program will terminate itself.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Check 'Shutdown Compute'

This will pre-check this option in the 'ISO Write Mode' window.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Don't Prompt Erase Media

If you enable this option - the program will erase your RW disc automatic if it's needed.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Don't Prompt Format Media

If you enable this option - the program will format your RW disc automatic.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Don't Prompt Overwrite Media

If you enable this option - the program will owerwrite your RW disc automatic.

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Layer Break (For DL Media

Calculate Optimal

The program will calculate the optimal layer break.

User Specified

You can insert where you want the layer break to be present.

Sectors in L0:

Input the amount of sectors you want to be on the first layer of the disc.

Use Layer Jump Recording (-R DL)

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Auto 'Export Graph Data'

The default setting is 'disabled'.

Format Media

Wait For Background Process

The default setting is 'enabled'.

Queue Options

Insert Nect Disc - Auto 'OK'

When you use the Queue function - the program will ask you to insert a new disc and after that is done it will wait 10 seconds by default before it starts the burning process. In this option you can specify how long that time should be.